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USA Today: U.S.-born children take fight over tuition to court

November 3, 2011

"WASHINGTON – State governments have been grappling with the question of whether to provide in-state college tuition rates to illegal immigrants who were brought to the U.S.as children.

Now a Florida lawsuit is highlighting a rare practice of forbidding U.S.-born students — citizens by birth — from getting in-state tuition because their parents are illegal immigrants.

Five students, all born in the U.S. to illegal immigrant parents, sued the state last month for denying them in-state tuition rates even though they'd lived in Florida, graduated from state high schools and were entering state colleges and universities. They claim the higher out-of-state rates they were charged either forced them to drop out or take fewer classes, delaying their eventual graduation.

Kassandra Romero, 18, enrolled at Palm Beach State College in June and was handed a $4,000 bill for the semester — more than three times the in-state rate. She left school to work as a waitress to save enough money to re-enroll in January." Read more …

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